Feature Channels: Alzheimer's and Dementia

• share
• favorite_border

Evidence is mounting that drugs used to treat depression and Alzheimer’s disease also can help patients recover from strokes.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study, led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute, the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System and University of California San Diego School of Medicine shows that increasing a crucial membrane protein in nerve cells within the brain can improve learning and memory in aged mice.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers find a protein that's involved in helping control the architecture of connections between neurons – a basic process involved in both healthy and diseased brains.

• share
• favorite_border

A new and comprehensive study has found that celiac patients are at no increased risk for dementia before or after their diagnosis of celiac disease.

• share
• favorite_border

Neural stem cells transplanted into damaged brain sites in mice dramatically improved both motor and cognitive impairments associated with dementia with Lewy bodies, according to University of California, Irvine neurobiologists with the Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center and the Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders.

• share
• favorite_border

The new technique allows scientists to study diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s using cells from human patients

• share
• favorite_border

The Nantz National Alzheimer Center at Houston Methodist Hospital is part of a landmark clinical trial that looks at removing a key protein from the brain to prevent memory loss at least a decade before symptoms are noticed in healthy older adults.

• share
• favorite_border

A multi-institutional team led by scientists at the Indiana University School of Medicine have discovered an immune system gene associated with higher rates of amyloid plaque buildup in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients and older adults at risk for the disease.

• share
• favorite_border

Women with a gene variant (APOEe4 allele) associated with Alzheimer’s disease experience a steeper decline in body mass index (BMI) after age 70 than those women without the version of the gene, whether they go on to develop dementia or not.

• share
• favorite_border

More than 100 of the world’s leading Alzheimer’s drug researchers will gather today and tomorrow at the Hyatt Regency Jersey City to hear the latest developments in the discovery and testing of promising drugs, detection technologies, biomarkers and newly discovered therapeutic targets for preventing, treating and curing Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Organized and hosted by the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, the conference is the only scientific meeting dedicated solely to bringing leading academic and industry scientists together to present new research on Alzheimer’s drug discovery and establish partnerships to further their studies.

• share
• favorite_border

Latest Research Highlights from ACSM— September 2015

• share
• favorite_border

Clumps of misfolded proteins are responsible for diseases ranging from Huntington’s, to diabetes and Alzheimer’s. McGill researchers hope to incrementally speed up the process of drug discovery for diseases such as these thanks to a new suite of computer tools they have developed.

• share
• favorite_border

A new science called Neurogastronomy brings chefs and neuroscientists together to improve quality of life for patients with taste & smell deficits. The inaugural International Society of Neurogastronomy symposium is November 7, 2015, featuring internationally-renowned chefs, scientists, and food technologists.

• share
• favorite_border

"This study has let us characterize the parameters of decline in people who will eventually develop Alzheimer's, which means we can better identify both benign symptoms and those that warrant particular attention." - Sylvie Belleville

• share
• favorite_border

Alzheimer’s disease, long thought to be a single disease, really consists of three distinct subtypes, according to a UCLA study.

• share
• favorite_border

The largest nationwide clinical trial to study high-dose resveratrol long-term in people with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease found that a biomarker that declines when the disease progresses was stabilized in people who took the purified form of resveratrol.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers conducting clinical trials of drugs that might prevent AD are exploring how best to inform participants of their increased risk for the disease, and studying how they cope with this information. Alzforum reports in a two-part series.

• share
• favorite_border

In a consensus paper, a global panel of leading aging experts suggests physicians routinely screen everyone older than 70 annually for cognitive problems.

• share
• favorite_border

The aging of the population, shifting diagnostic criteria, and new health care policy initiatives are some of the factors driving changes in mental health treatment for older Americans, according to the September special issue of the Harvard Review of Psychiatry. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.

• share
• favorite_border

An estimated 5.3 million people in the U.S. suffer from Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The five current FDA-approved AD medications only help mask the disease symptoms instead of treating the underlying disease. In a new study, researchers used IRL-1620, a chemical that binds to endothelin B receptors, to treat AD in rats.

• share
• favorite_border

Diabetes may be linked to the buildup of tangles or tau in the brain, separate from Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study published in the September 2, 2015, online version of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

• share
• favorite_border

Building on scientific evidence implicating disturbed calcium regulation in brain aging accumulated during the past 30 years, a research team in the University of Kentucky Department of Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences has found a connection between unhealthy brain aging and a protein responsible for regulating calcium at the molecular level, FKBP1b.

• share
• favorite_border

Degenerating neurons in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) measurably responded to an experimental gene therapy in which nerve growth factor (NGF) was injected into their brains, report researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine in the current issue of JAMA Neurology.

• share
• favorite_border

People with Alzheimer’s disease have fat deposits in the brain. For the first time since the disease was described 109 years ago, researchers affiliated with the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM) have discovered accumulations of fat droplets in the brain of patients who died from the disease and have identified the nature of the fat.

• share
• favorite_border

People who will develop dementia may begin to lose awareness of their memory problems two to three years before the actual onset of the disease, according to a new study published in the August 26, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study also found that several dementia-related brain changes, or pathologies, are associated with the decline in memory awareness.

• share
• favorite_border

Johns Hopkins researchers say they have discovered some of the first steps in how a very common gene mutation causes the brain damage associated with both amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

• share
• favorite_border

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and University of Massachusetts Medical School uncover the mechanism underlying the most common genetic cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia

• share
• favorite_border

Newly published research from the Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine explains why up to half of older adults who undergo general anesthesia develop postoperative delirium – the sudden onset of confusion, aggression or agitated behavior that could progress to dementia.

• share
• favorite_border

While some research suggests that a diet high in omega-3 fatty acids can protect brain health, a large clinical trial by researchers at the National Institutes of Health found that omega-3 supplements did not slow cognitive decline in older persons. With 4,000 patients followed over a five-year period, the study is one of the largest and longest of its kind. It was published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

• share
• favorite_border

Testing the saliva of healthy older people for the level of the stress hormone cortisol may help identify individuals who should be screened for problems with thinking skills, according to a study published in the August 19, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

• share
• favorite_border

For the first time, scientists have seen evidence of where the brain records the time and place of real-life memories.

• share
• favorite_border

Determining whether or not an individual has dementia and to what degree is a long and laborious process that can take an experienced professional such as a clinician about four to five hours to complete. A leading neuroscientist at FAU has developed a way for a layperson to do this in three to five minutes with results that are comparable to the “gold standard” dementia tests used by clinicians today.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified some of the key changes in the aging brain that lead to increased risk of Alzheimer's Disease.

• share
• favorite_border

A sense of shared purpose energized a day of exchange between families with autosomal-dominant AD and researchers engaged in the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network.

• share
• favorite_border

Modern living could be responsible for an ‘almost epidemic’ increase in neurological brain disease, according to new research from Bournemouth University. Published in the USA journal Surgical Neurology International.

• share
• favorite_border

Care2Caregivers marks its one-year anniversary of providing a lifeline to thousands caring for loved ones with dementia & Alzheimer's

• share
• favorite_border

Eating a group of specific foods known as the MIND diet may slow cognitive decline among aging adults, even when the person is not at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, according to researchers at Rush University Medical Center.

• share
• favorite_border

Medications commonly used to treat dementia could result in harmful weight loss, according to UCSF researchers, and clinicians need to account for this risk when prescribing these drugs to older adults, they said.

• share
• favorite_border

With the growing number of people with Alzheimer’s disease, understanding their care is vital for doctors. Yet medical students often just learn the facts and may only see people with advanced disease who are at the hospital or nursing home. A study shows a new way to help medical students learn about the disease—at the art museum.

• share
• favorite_border

For the first time, UCLA researchers have shown that a natural protein fragment produced in the brain can act as an inhibitor of a key enzyme implicated in the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, a finding that could lead to the development of new drugs to treat the disease.

• share
• favorite_border

At the University of Kentucky’s Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, researchers are looking for biomarkers that might serve as an early warning system for AD. The process is not without complications, but these scientists possess a collective “Rosie the Riveter” spirit.

• share
• favorite_border

NYU Langone researchers to present novel findings at 2015 Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Washington, D.C.

• share
• favorite_border

Unexplained weight loss is often seen in people with dementia, which can lead to further complications, including mental and physical deterioration. New research from Bournemouth University, funded by the Burdett Trust for Nursing, has revealed the challenges of providing good nutrition and hydration in people with dementia who live in care homes.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at NYU Langone Medical Center’s Center for Cognitive Neurology have evidence that monoclonal antibodies they developed may provide the blueprint for effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease.

• share
• favorite_border

Other topics include limb lengthening, Alzheimer's research, medical licensing, and more.

• share
• favorite_border

Study sheds light on the influences of genetics on why some type 2 diabetics are at high risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease.

• share
• favorite_border

Montefiore and Einstein Researchers to Present Alzheimer's and Dementia Research at AAIC Conference (July 18-23); Topics include risk factors for developing aMCI and and dementia in older adults.

• share
• favorite_border

Cedars-Sinai's July tip sheet includes story ideas related to Alzheimer's disease research, an upcoming conference on Lou Gehrig's Disease, also known as ALS, identification of critical genes responsible for brain tumor growth, and an online registry that is improving clinical research study participation. To pursue any of these story ideas, please contact the respective individuals listed.

• share
• favorite_border

Alzheimer’s disease may cause different changes in the brain, or pathologies, in African-Americans than in white Americans of European descent, according to a study published in the July 15, 2015, online issue of the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

• share
• favorite_border

Alzheimer’s disease may cause different changes in the brain, or pathologies, in African-Americans than in white Americans of European descent, according to a new study by researchers in the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center at Rush University Medical Center.